“Rap over Shakespeare”: Cambridge Union Society Debate Remarks

In the spring of 2014 I was invited to take part in an absurd debate titled: “This House Would Teach Rap over Shakespeare” at the Cambridge Union Society. This, my opening salvo for the “yea” side, puts the need for hip hop education in historical dialogue with the “Great Books” model of higher education and the imperialist framework on which that model was founded.

It’s a nice, short opening piece for why we might study hip hop — and popular culture more generally.